In motion, Robinson defense claims another suspect may have killed 4

Here are mugshots received from Central Louisiana law enforcement agencies for the week of Oct. 2, 2017. A criminal charge is a formal accusation that someone has committed a crime. All those pictured are innocent until proven guilty. To view those held in Rapides Parish detention facilities, go to www.rpso.org/inmates/all.
Wochit

Motion seeks testing of 15 items from 1996 quadruple slaying

Darrell James Robinson is walked into the Evangeline Parish Courthouse after his capture in May 1996. Robinson later was convicted of fatally shooting four members of a Poland-area family. He received the death penalty.(Photo: Town Talk file photo)

Darrell Robinson's defense team asserts another man could be responsible for killing four members of a Poland-area family, a crime for which Robinson has been on death row since 2001.

The allegations are made in an Aug. 14 motion filed by the defense that seeks the expert examination and scientific testing of physical evidence from the case. A hearing has been set on Dec. 12 for that motion.

In addition to the witnesses, Robinson's post-conviction defense team says a private laboratory matched their suspect's DNA profile to blood on a red jacket found at the murder scene.

The defense maintains that testing, in conjunction with the claims in the motion, "could confirm that someone other than petitioner committed these murders," it reads.

Another motion to set dates for an evidentiary hearing was filed by the defense on Sept. 26. Ninth Judicial District Court Judge Patricia Koch signed an order the next day, setting that hearing for May 14-25.

The Town Talk is not naming the defense's suspect because he has not been charged with any crime in connection to the May 1996 shooting deaths of Billy Lambert, 50, Carol Hooper, 54, Maureen Kelley, 27, and 10-month-old Nicholas Kelley.

Robinson was captured in Evangeline Parish about two hours after the four bodies were found inside Lambert's home. He had been staying at Lambert's home after the two had met during alcoholism treatment.

At trial, the defense argued Robinson had left the house in a panic after walking inside and finding the bodies. The gun used to kill all four never was found.

He's had several execution dates set, but remains on death row more than 20 years after the crime. The case has been on appeal since.

The August motion makes various allegations against the defense's suspect, claiming the man was a substance abuser who could be violent against those closest to him if they didn't give him money. It says he also lived with Lambert for a time in the months before the slayings, doing odd jobs and helping with Lambert's cattle.

But the defense's suspect moved out "after Lambert fired two shots at him with a pistol during an argument," reads the motion.

About six weeks before the murders, the alternative suspect's girlfriend had been hired by Lambert to clean his house, it reads. The motion claims that their suspect was being investigated by the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office for theft and forgery after stealing some of Lambert's checks.

That investigation was dropped after Lambert's death, it reads.

It also alleges that now-retired Rapides Assistant District Attorney Mike Shannon, who prosecuted the case, interviewed the man, his girlfriend and the girlfriend's father. Nothing from those interviews was disclosed to the defense, claims the motion.

"The state never produced a statement, notes or summary of Mr. Shannon's interview of (the alternative suspect) to trial counsel, nor was trial counsel even informed that the interview took place," it reads. "Because Mr. Shannon has refused to be deposed, post-conviction counsel has been unable to confirm the subject matter of Mr. Shannon's conversation with (the alternative suspect) or any statements (the alternative suspect) made at this interview."

The bodies of four people, the youngest being 10 months old, were found inside a Poland-area home in May 1996.(Photo: Town Talk file photo)

But the trial defense team was notified of another interview with the defense's suspect and another man in 1998, more than two years after the shootings, it reads.

The motion goes into detail about that interview, alleging that the detective interviewing them asked leading questions and helped the pair "build an alibi." During the interview, the two men mentioned hearing about the murders on the day they happened from another man.

That man never was interviewed by the detective, reads the motion. "Petitioner has followed up where the state did not," it reads.

The man denied seeing the defense's suspect on that day. "I know I did not speak to him that day, and I am sure I did not tell him of the murders," reads the motion.

The motion also claims it has two witnesses who place their suspect at the Lambert house on the morning of the murders. The names of the witnesses are not included in the motion because they expressed fear of the defense's suspect and were worried about their safety, it reads.

But one said they walked to the front of Lambert's house, spotting the defense's suspect standing outside the rear of the house. They said they knocked on the door, got no response and "saw what appeared to be bodies on the floor," it reads.

The two got scared and left.

One of those same witnesses claims in the motion to have heard the defense's suspect drunkenly brag that he, his brother and another person had killed the four and had stolen money from inside the house, which wasn't far off La. Highway 1.

The motion states that it had DNA from the defense's suspect tested by a private laboratory and that his DNA profile matched the DNA profile taken from blood on the red jacket found at the crime scene.

In all, the defense is seeking to have 15 items tested.

The request for retesting "is no mere fishing expedition," reads the motion. Robinson "seeks to confirm what his post-conviction investigation has already revealed — (the defense's suspect) is at least connected to, if not culpable for, the murders at 10 Guy Peart Road."